1- BEHAVIORAL ENGINEERING
Behavioral engineering is intended to identify issues associated with the interface of technology and the human operators in a system and to generate recommended design practices that consider the strengths and limitations of the human operators."The behavior of the individual has been shaped according to revelations of 'good conduct' never as the result of experimental study." B.F Skinner, "Walden Two"
Watson wrote in 1924 "Behaviorism ... holds that the subject matter of human psychology is the behavior of the human being. Behaviorism claims that consciousness is neither a definite nor a usable concept."
This approach is often used in organizational behavior management, which is behavior analysis applied to organizations and behavioral community psychology.
2- DOMAIN ENGINEERING
Domain Engineering, also called product line engineering, is the entire process of reusing domain knowledge in the production of new software systems. It is a key concept in systematic software reuse.
A key idea in systematic software reuse is the domain, a software area that contains systems sharing commonalities. Most organizations work in only a few domains. They repeatedly build similar systems within a given domain with variations to meet different customer needs. Rather than building each new system variant from scratch, significant gains are achievable by reusing portions of previous systems in the domain to build new ones.
The process of identifying domains, bounding them, and discovering commonalities and variabilities among the systems in the domain is called domain analysis. This information is captured in models that are used in the domain implementation phase to create artifacts such as reusable components, a domain-specific programming language, or application generators that can be used to build new systems in the domain.
3- ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
Engineering Management is a term that is used to describe a specialized form of management that is required to successfully lead engineering personnel and projects. The term can be used to describe either functional management or project management- leading technical professionals who are working in the fields of product development, manufacturing, construction, design engineering, industrial engineering, technology, production, or any other field that employs personnel who perform an engineering function.
4- ENGINEERING PSYCOLOGY
Ergonomic research The ergonomics of a product, is the way the user interacts with it. for example, the ergonomics of a door handle is how the user is able to use the product, well and efficently. the way the product is made in order to suit a typical use.
Five aspects of ergonomics
There are five aspects of ergonomics: safety, comfort, ease of use, productivity/performance, and aesthetics. Based on these aspects of ergonomics, examples are given of how products or systems could benefit from redesign based on ergonomic principles.
1.Safety - Medicine bottles: The print on them could be larger so that a sick person who may have bad vision (due to sinuses, etc.) can more easily see the dosages and label. Ergonomics could design the print style, color and size for optimal viewing.
2.Comfort - Alarm clock display: Some displays are harshly bright, drawing one’s eye to the light when surroundings are dark. Ergonomic principles could re-design this based on contrast principles.
3.Ease of use - Street Signs: In a strange area, many times it is difficult to spot street signs. This could be addressed with the principles of visual detection in ergonomics.
4.Productivity/performance - HD TV: The sound on HD TV is much lower than regular TV. So when you switch from HD to regular, the volume increases dramatically. Ergonomics recognizes that this difference in decibel level creates a difference in loudness and hurts human ears and this could be solved by evening out the decibel levels.
5.Aesthetics - the look and feel of the object, the user experience.
5- LOGISTIC ENGINEERING
Logistic Engineering deals with the science of Logistics. Logistics is about the purchasing, transport, storage, distribution, warehousing of raw materials, semi-finished/work-in-process goods and finished goods. Managing all these activities efficiently and effectively for an organisation is the main question at the back of the mind of any logistic engineer.
Logistics is generally a cost center service activity, but it provides value via improved customer satisfaction. It can quickly lose that value if the customer becomes dissatisfied. The end customer can include another process or work center inside of the manufacturing facility, a warehouse where items are stocked or the final customer who will use the product.
Another much more popular derivative and a complete usage of the logistic term which has appeared in recent years is the supply chain. The supply chain also looks at an efficient chaining of the supply / purchase and distribution sides of an organisation. While Logistics looks at single echelons with the immediate supply and distribution linked up, supply chain looks at multiple echelons/stages, right from procurement of the raw materials to the final distribution of finished goods up to the customer. It is based on the basic premise that the supply and distribution activities if integrated with the manufacturing / logistic activities, can result in better profitability for the organisation. The local minima of total cost of the manufacturing operation is getting replaced by the global minima of total cost of the whole chain, resulting in better profitability for the chain members and hence lower costs for the products.
"Logistics Engineering" as a discipline is also a very important aspect of systems engineering that includes reliability engineering. It is the science and process whereby reliability, maintainability, and availability are designed into products or systems. It includes the supply and physical distribution considerations above as well as more fundamental engineering considerations. For example, if we want to produce a system that is 95% reliable (or improve a system to achieve 95% reliability), a logistics engineer understands that total system reliability can be no greater than the least reliable subsystem or component. Therefore our logistics engineer must consider the reliability of all subcomponents or subsystems and modify system design accordingly. If a subsystem is only 50% reliable, one can concentrate on improving the reliability of that subsystem, design in multiple subsystems in parallel (5 in this case would achieve approximately 97% reliability of that subsystem), purchase and store spare subsystems for rapid change out, establish repair capability that would get a failed subsystem back in operation in the required amount of time, and/or choose any combination of those approaches to achieve the optimal cost vs. reliability solution. Then the engineer moves onto the next subsystem.
Logistics Engineers work with complex mathematical models that consider elements such as Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time To Failure (MTTF), Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), statistical distributions, queueing theory, and a host of other considerations. Obviously, logistics engineering is a complex science that considers tradeoffs in component/system design, repair capability, training, spares inventory, demand history, storage and distribution points, transportation methods, etc., to ensure the "thing" is where it's needed, when it's needed, and operating the way it's needed all at an acceptable cost
6- MODEL DRIVER ENGINEERING
Model-driven engineering (MDE) is a software development methodology which focuses on creating models, or abstractions, more close to some particular domain concepts rather than computing (or algorithmic) concepts. It is meant to increase productivity by maximizing compatibility between systems, simplifying the process of design, and promoting communication between individuals and teams working on the system.
A modeling paradigm for MDE is considered effective if its models make sense from the point of view of the user and can serve as a basis for implementing systems. The models are developed through extensive communication among product managers, designers, and members of the development team. As the models approach completion, they enable the development of software and systems.
7- PERFORMANCE ENGINEERING
Performance engineering within systems engineering, encompasses the set of roles, skills, activities, practices, tools, and deliverables applied at every phase of the Systems Development Life Cycle which ensures that a solution will be designed, implemented, and operationally supported to meet the non-functional requirements defined for the solution.
It may be alternatively referred to as software performance engineering within software engineering; however since performance engineering encompasses more than just the software, the term performance engineering is preferable. Adherence to the non-functional requirements is validated by monitoring the production systems. This is part of IT service management (see also ITIL).
Performance engineering has become a separate discipline at a number of large corporations, and may be affiliated with the enterprise architecture group. It is pervasive, involving people from multiple organizational units; but predominantly within the information technology organization.
8- PRODUCT FAMILY ENGINEERING
Product Line Engineering (PLE) is a synonym created by the Software Engineering Institute for Domain Engineering, a term coined by James Neighbors in his 1980 dissertation at UC Irvine.
Product families/lines are quite common in our daily lives, but before a product family can be successfully established, an extensive process has to be followed. This process is known as product family engineering, product line engineering, and software product lines.
Product family/line engineering can be defined as a method that creates an underlying architecture of an organizations product platform. It provides an architecture that is based on commonality as well as planned variabilities. The various product variants can be derived from the basic product family, which creates the opportunity to reuse and differentiate on products in the family.
Product family/line engineering is a relatively new approach to the creation of new products. It focuses on the process of engineering new products in such a way that it is possible to reuse product components and apply variability with decreased costs and time. Product family/line engineering is all about reusing components and structures as much as possible.
Several studies have proven that using a Product family/line engineering approach for product development can have several benefits (Carnegie Mellon (SEI), 2003). Here is a list of some of them:
Higher productivity
Higher quality
Faster time-to-market
Lower labor needs
9- QUALITY ENGINEERING
Quality assurance, or QA for short, refers to planned and systematic production processes that provide confidence in a product's suitability for its intended purpose. Refer to the definition by Merriam-Webster for further information [1]. It is a set of activities intended to ensure that products (goods and/or services) satisfy customer requirements in a systematic, reliable fashion. QA cannot absolutely guarantee the production of quality products, unfortunately, but makes this more likely.
Two key principles characterise QA: "fit for purpose" (the product should be suitable for the intended purpose) and "right first time" (mistakes should be eliminated). QA includes regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components; services related to production; and management, production and inspection processes.
It is important to realize also that quality is determined by the intended users, clients or customers, not by society in general: it is not the same as 'expensive' or 'high quality'. Even goods with low prices can be considered quality items if they meet a market need.
10- RELIABILTY ENGINEERING
Reliability engineering is an engineering field, that deals with the study of reliability: the ability of a system or component to perform its required functions under stated conditions for a specified period of time. It is often reported in terms of a probability.
Many tasks, methods, and tools can be used to achieve reliability. Every system requires a different level of reliability. A commercial airliner must operate under a wide range of conditions. The consequences of failure are grave, but there is a correspondingly higher budget. A pencil sharpener may be more reliable than an airliner, but has a much different set of operational conditions, insignificant consequences of failure, and a much lower budget.
A reliability program plan is used to document exactly what tasks, methods, tools, analyses, and tests are required for a particular system. For complex systems, the reliability program plan is a separate document. For simple systems, it may be combined with the systems engineering management plan or integrated Logistics Support management plan. The reliability program plan is essential for a successful reliability program and is developed early during system development. It specifies not only what the reliability engineer does, but also the tasks performed by others. The reliability program plan is approved by top program management.
For any system, one of the first tasks of reliability engineering is to adequately specify the reliability requirements. Reliability requirements address the system itself, test and assessment requirements, and associated tasks and documentation. Reliability requirements are included in the appropriate system/subsystem requirements specifications, test plans, and contract statements
11- SAFETY ENGINEERING
Safety engineering is an applied science strongly related to systems engineering and the subset System Safety Engineering. Safety engineering assures that a life-critical system behaves as needed even when pieces fail.
First a little history to put FTA into perspective. It came out of work on the Minuteman Missile System. All the digital circuits used in the Minuteman Missile System were designed and tested extensively. The failure probabilities as well as failure modes well understood and documented for each circuit. I believe it was GTE/Sylvania, one of the prime contractors, discovered that the probability of failure for various components were easily constructed from the boolean expressions for those components. [Note there was one complex digital system constructed by GTE/Sylvania about that time with no logic diagrams only pages of boolean expressions. These worked out nicely because logic diagrams are designed to be read left to right the way the engineer creates the design. But when they fail the technicians must read them from right to left.] In any case this analysis of hardware lead to the use of the same symbology and thinking for what (with additional symbols) is now known as a Fault Tree. Note the de Morgan's equivalent of a fault tree is the success tree.
In the technique known as "fault tree analysis", an undesired effect is taken as the root ('top event') of a tree of logic. There should be only one Top Event and all concerns must tree down from it. This is also a consequence of another Minuteman Missile System requirement that all analysis be Top Down. By fiat there was to be no bottom up analysis. Then, each situation that could cause that effect is added to the tree as a series of logic expressions. When fault trees are labeled with actual numbers about failure probabilities, which are often in practice unavailable because of the expense of testing, computer programs can calculate failure probabilities from fault trees.
BOOKS ON INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
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